Your Experience Burning LP's To CD

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Being on vacation this week, I'm finally taking it easy & just relaxing. It's given me some extra time to burn alot of Lp's to CD that I have been wanting to do for the last 6 months. I've burned approx 10 of the 19 LP's so far.

Wanted to share my expereince with one LP. I have a really old LP of Olivia's that I have wanted to replace for the longest time but never did. The spine is all split apart & I had to store it in a clear LP plastic cover to keep it all together. This LP has so many special memories that I could never get rid of it. I can still remember playing it when I was alot younger, on a really bad plastic housing turntable that folded up like an accordian & when opened the speakers would drop down on each side Ha Ha.

There were 3 skips (that jumped a word in a sentence on diff songs) on the album & these skip places are etched into my mind, so much that later when I bought the official CD, I still "looked" for the skip to come & laughed each time thinking (that is where the skip should be) What I also found was that of the 3 skips that I remember vividly, when I played this LP on my current turntable (Technics Quartz DD SL-Q350 it only played the 2 skips, the 3rd one it must have fixed itself cause it didn't skip like I remember it should have, that was cool, I wondered if it was the record doctor that cleaned it or the upgraded turntable w better stylus I'm using now?

So I gave this LP a spin the other day & said heck why not, I'm gonna burn it to CD. Well today, I took the car out for a spin, popped the CDR into the car & well I had the time of my life. Even though there are those 2 skips, the LP plays remarkably well, just a up close & personal feel, real warmth that I said this sounds really really good.

So I told myself I'm not going to replace the LP, it would be like throwing away a good friend.

Another LP that turned out awesome is the Cole/Shearing Mobile Fidelity LP that I burned to CD. Very cool to hear this in my car stereo system. So crisp & clean sounding.

Anyone else have stories like this?

 

[Steven J. Gross]

Here's a dumb question (from someone who burns cds to cd), how do you do the transfer?- are you using an outboard CD recorder or the computer, Chris?

 

[andywithaz]

dont you mean LPs???

 

[Steven J. Gross]

I want to take an LP and put it on CD.

 

[Rudy]

Unfortunately I've been swamped with so much work, my backlog of vinyl transfers is growing.

I'm anxious, though--I got a DVD+/-R burner in the computer a few months ago because it was so cheap. Works great--I even used DVDxCOPY to copy a couple of DVDs. (Let the kids trash a $1 blank DVD-R rather than a $20 DVD.) I got it mainly to make DVD-Audio discs, rather than CDs, as my "masters", as I can later downsample to CD for playback in the car. I don't yet have DVD-A authoring software, but I'm looking at a couple of options and seeing which one will work for me.

I can do transfers two ways. One is a quick and dirty method of recording to a standalone CD recorder in my audio system. It's great if I don't want to clean anything up. Thing is, track markers are never perfect. One thing I've done is record on that deck to a CD-RW without any track markers, dump it into the computer, set my own tracks, and burn a final disc on the computer.

My normal computer rig, though, is an M-Audio Audiophile USB analog to digital converter that will do a maximum of 24-bit/96khz sampling. I'll use Sound Forge with Waves plugins to do any cleanup or minor tweaking if needed (my recent jobs are "less is more"...I try to get away with as little processing as I can). CD burning is done with CD Architect. Right now, I'm running the tape output from one of my preamps into another (to use as level control). When I move the computer out of the room, though, I'm looking at setting up another turntable I picked up (Music Hall MMF-2.1) with another Shure V15VxMR cartridge and have it ready strictly for vinyl dubbing. I have a Hafler preamp available for that, but I might pick up a Dynaco PAS3X tube preamp for those "vintage" albums.

 

[Harry]

So I gave this LP a spin the other day & said heck why not, I'm gonna burn it to CD. Well today, I took the car out for a spin, popped the CDR into the car & well I had the time of my life. Even though there are those 2 skips, the LP plays remarkably well, just a up close & personal feel, real warmth that I said this sounds really really good.

Anyone else have stories like this?

Actually yes, though for me it was a bunch of 45s. When cleaning out my late parents' house, we found a stack of 45s that were mine from childhood. As a kid in the '50s with an older sister into the pop music of the day, I have a lot of fond memories of spending hours spinning these discs on my little RCA 45 record player.

These records were from groups like The Chords (and the original "Sh-Boom") to The Four Aces, and single artists like Rosemary Clooney and Debbie Reynolds to Bill Haley and Bobby Darin.

I pulled out the ones that really evoked fond memories and had transferred them to cassette a number of years ago and had a ball listening to the in the car or on trips with a Walkman. It didn't matter too much that some of them were scratcy and distorted - they were still fun to hear again, and they all sounded a lot better than they did on that old 45 record player.

When I wanted to move this little collection over to CD, I went on a search to see if I could find better versions of some of the records in the worst condition, with fair success. Some of these tracks were easily obtained on CD, some I found on re-pressed 45s, others on semi-clean LPs. Many still had to be sourced from my old original 45s in whatever shape they existed. Thus the final product sounds like a bit of a hodge-podge, but then it's only for me, and not the world in general.

What's interesting for me to note is how many of these old records are by harmony groups. The Four Aces, The Four Lads, The McGuire Sisters, Les Paul & Mary Ford, The Chords, The Laurie Sisters, The Fontane Sisters, etc. Many of these were pre-cursors to the sound of the Carpenters that I later became so fond of.

It's a real treat for this 53 year old guy to be driving around in his Maxima, listening to his old 45 of the Jackie Lee Orchestra playing "Isle Of Capri", and still envisioning the old orange Coral label spinning on the record player.

Harry
...bringing back old memories, online...

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Here's a dumb question (from someone who burns cds to cd), how do you do the transfer?- are you using an outboard CD recorder or the computer, Chris?

Steven, I use a quick method, my turntable is located in my music room with my PC, I use a patch cord (from radio shack) & plug it from the turntable (red/white for L/R audio) the other goes into my PC soundcard "line in". I then use a PC program called Musicmatch Jukebox that came preloaded with my Dell PC system. I switch the options on that for line in recording & choose option to make a WAV file of the song from the LP. I found that by making a WAV file rather than a MP3 file I get a better recording. My program describes it this way:

WAV (uncompressed 1:1 compression ratio) Uses no compression is equal to CD quality sound. For this setting, 1 minute of music will equal approximate 10MB of disk space.

If I'm burning a whole LP, it can use lots & lots of harddisc space but I have it so no problem & I can always delete the WAV when I'm done with it. I then use another program to burn the Wav file to CD, called Roxio Easy CD Creator (also pre-loaded on my system)

I don't have a program that splits up the tracks (like Rudy) mentioned. So I just let it record side to side on LP. Also with alot of Carpenters tracks they are sequed into one another so that is just something I don't want to mess with.

The Four Aces, The Four Lads, The McGuire Sisters, Les Paul & Mary Ford, The Chords, The Laurie Sisters, The Fontane Sisters, etc. Many of these were pre-cursors to the sound of the Carpenters that I later became so fond of..

On the DVD of the Carpenters when Richard tells us how he & Karen were influenced with the overdubbing technique, I can still remember the DVD video clip of Les Paul & Mary Ford and how they used that clip, "All Night Long".....and Les Paul explained how he was able to make 1 Mary into 3 4 5 6 Mary's. I couldn't help but think how Richard used this as a basis for the sound he brought out with Karen's vocals in making the Carpenters sound.

 

[Steven J. Gross]

Thanks for all the useful info!

 

[Rudy]

As a kid in the '50s with an older sister into the pop music of the day, I have a lot of fond memories of spending hours spinning these discs on my little RCA 45 record player.

Cool--you had one of those? I recently got a similar model (45EY3, which had the case with the lid on it) that I'm going to be rebuilding. Interesting that you can still order Sams Photofact repair diagrams for these old units! Fully refurbished, that model you had now sells for about $250.

When I wanted to move this little collection over to CD, I went on a search to see if I could find better versions of some of the records in the worst condition, with fair success. Some of these tracks were easily obtained on CD, some I found on re-pressed 45s, others on semi-clean LPs. Many still had to be sourced from my old original 45s in whatever shape they existed.

One thing I've noticed is that sometimes the CD or LP versions, if in stereo, don't sound quite the same as those old 45s. There are some songs I want to find on 45, but the original or early pressings I'm after would cost too much.

 

[Harry]

As a kid in the '50s with an older sister into the pop music of the day, I have a lot of fond memories of spending hours spinning these discs on my little RCA 45 record player.

Cool--you had one of those? I recently got a similar model (45EY3, which had the case with the lid on it) that I'm going to be rebuilding. Interesting that you can still order Sams Photofact repair diagrams for these old units! Fully refurbished, that model you had now sells for about $250.

I had no idea of their current value, but was certainly fond of mine as a child. One problem with that particular design was that the electronics (read tubes!) were underneath and heated up the metal plate around which the turntable spun. The heat would get so intense that it would actually melt and warp the records. I still have my old copy of "I Need our Lovin'" by The Cheers on the old purple Capitol label in a warped condition from being left on this record player too long.

Later on, when my grandfather passed away, I inherited his suitcase version of the RCA record player with the foldover lid and electronics on the side. I don't know what happened to either one - they probably were thrown out long ago.

One thing I've noticed is that sometimes the CD or LP versions, if in stereo, don't sound quite the same as those old 45s. There are some songs I want to find on 45, but the original or early pressings I'm after would cost too much.

That's true. In this particular case, I was amazed when I found a stereo copy of "Mack The Knife" by Bobby Darin. After years of hearing only the mono version, the stereo was truly a different experience. It however is the ONLY track in stereo on this little compilation of mine. I enjoy the stereo version too as something a little different from my memories.

Harry
...expecting only half a work-day today, online...

 

[Rudy]

I had no idea of their current value, but was certainly fond of mine as a child. One problem with that particular design was that the electronics (read tubes!) were underneath and heated up the metal plate around which the turntable spun.

I've found there are three common problems with these players. First, the rubber parts inside tend to dry out, which means they either need resurfacing or replacement. Second, the tube amplifier gets noisy, anywhere from a slight hum (like mine has) to a complete hum where no sound comes out; repairing this is simple, since you only have to replace the capacitors with new ones. Third is the cartridge, since the old one was crystal (which would often quit working) and didn't track well; one collector out there modifies a newer cartridge to work in these players. Other than that, the usual mechanical tweaks (cleaning, oiling, greasing) are what they need.

Unrebuilt, you can usually get one for $40 or less. On eBay, search for "RCA Record Player" and "Victrola 45"--that usually finds most of these little players. Here's a typical repairable model:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2253475946

And here is a 45-EY-2 that Paul Childress has restored:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2253908904

William Bosco also restores these--this is the same model (45-EY-3) I picked up:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2254292904